Papers by Author: Olivério Moreira Macedo Silva

Abstract: Advanced ceramic materials constitute a mature technology with a very broad base of current and potential applications and a growing list of material compositions. Within the advanced ceramics category, silicon nitride based ceramics are wear-resistant, corrosion- resistant and lightweight materials, and are superior to many materials with regard to stability in high-temperature environments. Because of this combination the silicon nitride ceramics have an especially high potential to resolve a wide number of machining problems in the industries. Presently the Si3N4 ceramic cutting tool inserts are developed using additives powders that are pressed and sintered in the form of a cutting tool insert at a temperature of 1850 oC using pressureless sintering. The microstructure of the material was observed and analyzed using XRD, SEM, and the mechanical response of this array microstructure was characterized for hardness Vickers and fracture toughness. The results show that Si3N4/20 wt.% (AlN and Y2O3) gives the best balance between hardness Vickers and fracture toughness. The Si3N4/15 wt.% (AlN and Y2O3) composition allows the production of a very fine-grained microstructure with low decreasing of the fracture toughness and increased hardness Vickers. These ceramic cutting tools present adequate characteristics for future application on dry machining.

Abstract: In this work, the effect of the milling time on the densification of the alumina ceramics with or without 5wt.%Y2O3, is evaluated, using high-energy ball milling. The milling was performed with different times of 0, 2, 5 or 10 hours. All powders, milled at different times, were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction presenting a reduction of the crystalline degree and crystallite size as function of the milling time increasing. The powders were compacted by cold uniaxial pressing and sintered at 1550°C-60min. Green density of the compacts presented an increasing as function of the milling time and sintered samples presented evolution on the densification as function of the reduction of the crystallite size of the milled powders.

Abstract: Nowadays, silicon nitride based cutting tools are used to machine cast iron from the automotive industry and nickel superalloys from the aero industries. Advances in manufacturing technologies (increased cutting speeds, dry machining, etc.) induced the fast commercial growth of physical vapor deposition (PVD) coatings for cutting tools, in order to increase their life time. In this work, a new composition of the Si3N4 ceramic cutting tool was developed, characterized and subsequently coated, using a PVD process, with aluminum chromium nitride (AlCrN). The Si3N4 substrate properties were analyzed by XRD, AFM, hardness and fracture toughness. The AlCrN coating was analyzed by AFM, grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) and hardness. The results showed that this PVD coating could be formed homogeneously, without cracks and promoted a higher surface hardness to the insert and consequently it can produce a better wear resistance during its application on high speed machining.

Abstract: Silicon nitride cutting tools have been used successfully for machining hard materials, like: cast irons, nickel based alloys, etc. However these cutting tools with diamond coating present little information on dry turning operations of gray cast iron. In the present work, Si3N4 square inserts was developed, characterized and subsequently coated with diamond for dry machining operations on gray cast iron. All experiments were conducted with replica. It was used a 1500, 3000, 4500 m cutting length, feed rate of 0.33 mm/rev and keeping the depth of cut constant and equal to 1 mm. The results show that wear in the tool tips of the Si3N4 inserts, in all cutting conditions, was caused by both mechanical and chemical processes. To understand the tool wear mechanisms, a morphological analysis of the inserts, after experiments, has been performed by SEM and optical microscopy. Diamond coated PVD inserts showed to be capable to reach large cutting lengths when machining gray cast iron.

Abstract: Commercial α−Si3N4, Al2O3 and a mixed yttrium and rare earth oxides, RE2O3, were used as starting-powders. Powder batches were milled using different Al2O3/RE2O3 contents, as additive. Hot-pressing was done at 1750oC-30 min-20MPa in N2 atmosphere. Specimens neat to 6x3x3mm3 were polished and characterized by XRD and SEM. Specimens were submitted to creep tests, under compressive stresses between 100 and 350 MPa at temperatures ranging from 1250 to 1300oC in air. Higher additive amounts resulted in larger grains of higher aspect ratios and in a decreased anisotropy in the hot-pressed ceramics. The compressive creep behavior depends on the intergranular phase content. While higher amounts of additives resulted in higher creep rates, • ε , and higher stress exponents, n, the activation energy Qss, has been inferior for samples with lower additive contents. Grain sliding has been identified to be the predominant mechanism responsible for creep deformation of these ceramics.

Abstract: Due to their high hardness and wear resistance Si3N4 based ceramics are one of the most suitable cutting tool materials for machining hardened materials. Therefore, their high degree of brittleness usually leads to inconsistent results and sudden catastrophic failures. Improvement of the functional properties these tools and reduction of the ecological threats may be accomplished by employing the technology of putting down hard coatings on tools in the state-of-the-art PVD processes, mostly by improvement of the tribological contact conditions in the cutting zone and by eliminating the cutting fluids. However in this paper was used a Si3N4 based cutting tool commercial with a layer TiN coating. In this investigation, the performance of TiN coating was assessed on turning used to machine an automotive grade compacted graphite iron. As part of the study were used to characterise the performance of cutting tool, flank wear, temperature and roughness. The results showed that the layer TiN coating failed to dry compacted graphite iron under aggressive machining conditions. However, using the measurement of flank wear technique, the average tool life of was increased by Vc=160 m/min.The latter was also observed using a toolmakers microscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Abstract: During gray cast iron cutting, the great rate of mechanical energy from cutting forces is converted into heat. Considerable heat is generated, principally in three areas: the shear zone, rake face and at the clearance side of the cutting edge. Excessive heat will cause undesirable high temperature in the tool which leads to softening of the tool and its accelerated wear and breakage. Nowadays the advanced ceramics are widely used in cutting tools. In this paper a composition special of Si3N4 was sintering, characterized, cut and ground to make SNGN120408 and applyed in machining gray cast iron with hardness equal 205 HB in dry cutting conditions by using digital controlled computer lathe. The tool performance was analysed in function of cutting forces, flank wear, temperature and roughness. Therefore metal removing process is carried out for three different cutting speeds (300 m/min, 600 m/min, and 800 m/min), while a cutting depth of 1 mm and a feed rate of 0.33 mm/rev are kept constant. As a result of the experiments, the lowest main cutting force, which depends on cutting speed, is obtained as 264 N at 600 m/min while the highest main cutting force is recorded as 294 N at 300 m/min.

Abstract: There has been a great interest for improving the machining of cast iron materials in the automotive and other industries. Comparative studies for tool used to machine grey cast iron (CI) and compacted graphite iron (CGI) on dry machining were also performed in order to find out why in this case the tool lifetime is not significantly higher. However the machining these materials while considering turning with the traditional high-speed steel and carbide cutting tools present any disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is that all the traditional machining processes involve the cooling fluid to remove the heat generated on workpiece due to friction during cutting. This paper present a new generation of ceramic cutting tool exhibiting improved properties and important advances in machining CI and CGI. The tool performance was analyzed in function of flank wear, temperature and roughness, while can be observed that main effects were found for tool wear, were abrasion to CI and inter-diffusion of constituting elements between tool and CGI, causing crater. However the difference in tool lifetime can be explained by the formation of a MnS layer on the tool surface in the case of grey CI. This layer is missing in the case of CGI.

Abstract: The α-SiAlON ceramic cutting tool insert is developed. Silicon nitride and additives powders are pressed and sintered in the form of cutting tool inserts at temperature of 1900 oC. The physics and mechanical properties of the inserts like green density, weight loss, relative density, hardness and fracture toughness are evaluated. Machining studies are conducted on grey cast iron workpiece to evaluate the performance of α-SiAlON ceramic cutting tool. In the paper the cutting tool used in higher speed showed an improvement in the tribological interaction between the cutting tools and the grey cast iron workpiece resulted in a significant reduction of flank wear and roughness, because of better accommodation and the presence of the graphite in gray cast iron. The above results are discussed in terms of their affect at machining parameters on gray cast iron.

Abstract: Due to their high hardness and wear resistance, Si3N4 based ceramics are one of the most suitable cutting tool materials for machining cast iron, nickel alloys and hardened steels. However, their high degree of brittleness usually leads to inconsistent results and sudden catastrophic failures. This necessitates a process optimization when machining superalloys with Si3N4 based ceramic cutting tools. The tools are expected to withstand the heat and pressure developed when machining at higher cutting conditions because of their high hardness and melting point. This paper evaluates the performance of α-SiAlON tool in turning Ti–6Al–4V alloy at high cutting conditions, up to 250 m min−1, without coolant. Tool wear, failure modes and temperature were monitored to access the performance of the cutting tool. Test results showed that the performance of α-SiAlON tool, in terms of tool life, at the cutting conditions investigated is relatively poor due probably to rapid notching and excessive chipping of the cutting edge. These facts are associated with adhesion and diffusion wear rate that tends to weaken the bond strength of the cutting tool.